Numerous types of fishing rods are known, including fly fishing rods, bait casting rods, spin casting rods, spinning rods, ultra-light rods, surf fishing rods and the like. Dating back to various ancient civilizations in Egypt, China, Greece and Rome, fishing rods were originally formed from bamboo, Calcutta reed and ash wood. Rod butts were often formed of materials such as maple, having a bored bottom, and had handles and grips of materials such as cork, wood and cane. Rod guides of wire loops sometimes with ring-shaped inserts were provided.
These materials gradually gave way to synthetic materials such as fiberglass and graphite composites and included joints or ferrules which made it practical to travel with rods that could be broken down until ready for use. Today, modern multi-piece travel rods can be easily transported in a suitcase or backpack. Rod design generally dictates that rods have a gradual taper from butt to tip, requires that the rods must be tight in all of their joints, and have a smooth and progressive taper lacking any “dead spots”.
While modern manufacturing techniques enable rod makers to fashion rods having shapes and actions to provide greater casting distance, accuracy, and fish-fighting abilities, the weight and action of a particular rod are normally engineered with a particular end-use in mind, and a particularly preferred reel type and reel mounting position, in order to take maximum advantage of the abilities of a finely tuned rod design.
In order to fish for a multiple species, which requires employing a variety of techniques, it is often necessary for an angler to bring along multiple sets of tackle, each requiring a different combination of rod and reel, and each combination having unique positioning and mounting criteria for the rod and reel combination.
What is lacking in the art is a reel seat for a fishing rod useful for attachment of multiple fishing reel types in a plurality of locations along the rod, so as to produce a number of rod/reel combinations particularly suited to a certain type or style of fishing technique.
Therefore, providing a rod and reel system wherein a particular rod action could be tailored for optimum weight and balance with a plurality of reel types, would satisfy along-felt need in the art.